Racial Disparities in the criminal justice system

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 2.3 million people in prison. Mass incarceration disproportionately plagues communities of color: 70% of those in American prisons are non-white. Although the average American has a 1 in 20 chance of being imprisoned in his lifetime, the rate of incarceration increases to 1 in 6 for Latino men and more than 1 in 3 for Black men compared to 1 in 23 for white men (1).

Some may believe that the rate of incarceration for a group is proportional to the rate of crime committed by that group, but the evidence of racial bias in the U.S. police and criminal justice system is abundant and indicates otherwise. For example, the war on drugs is disproportionately targeted at Black people. Even though Black people and white people use marijuana at a similar rate, Black people are 4 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession (2). Additionally, Black people are more likely to be wrongfully convicted. According to a study by Michigan State University, Black prisoners who are convicted of murder are 50% more likely to be innocent than other convicted murderers and are more likely to spend longer in prison before exoneration. A vast majority of wrongful conviction due to racial bias are also never discovered.

Approximately, 42 per million people of Black Americans were killed in police shootings between 2013 and 2019, the highest among all races. Black people are 3 times more likely to be killed in police shootings than white people (3). They were 1.3 times more likely to be unarmed compared to whites when they were killed. In more than 98% (7,564) shootings, officers were not charged with any crime. Charges in 99 instances did not lead to convictions in more than 20 cases (4). These data reveal the undeniable racial disparities that pervade the U.S. criminal justice system, and for Black Americans in particular.

Via www.prisonpolicy.org

Data via Sentencing Project

Sources:

1. https://eji.org/news/history-racial-injustice-race-and-criminal-justice/

2. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/13/nyregion/marijuana-arrests-nyc-race.html

3. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/blacks-whites-police-deaths-disparity/

4. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/blacks-whites-police-deaths-disparity/